Monday, May 04, 2009

Ground-Elder and Vanilla Muffins

From the recipe archives, updated in May 2009, orignally posted in May 2008.

Ground-elder, you may wonder? Well, I wrote more about that healthy wild green a while ago (check out my It's a Wild Thing: Hortapita or Greek Pie with Wild Greens post). Here's a recipe for delicious and unusual ground-elder muffins, adapted from a recipe seen in a local food magazine in early 2008. I must admit I first thought 'ground-elder muffins' are savoury ones, so seeing sugar and vanilla in the list of ingredients suprised me a little. However, I did follow the list of ingredients, changing the proportions and instructions as I went along, and was extremely pleased with the end result. The muffins were sweet, very slightly green-tasting, and very pleasant indeed.

Should you come across young and bright green ground-elder leaves in your garden, you should really try this recipe.

Pour some boiling water over ground elder leaves and leave to stand for a few minutes.Whisk eggs with sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the cooled melted butter, vanilla. Mix flour, baking powder and salt, then fold into the batter.Drain the ground-elder and squeeze dry. Chop finely, then stir into the batter.Divide into prepared muffin cups* and bake in the middle of 220 C oven for 12-15 minutes, until muffins are lovely light golden brown.

* Either lined with paper muffin cases or generously buttered and dusted with flour.

On the West Coast of the United States this ground-elder thing is not something ever heard of -- so I Googled it, and it's treated as an invasive weed on the East Coast. I guess nematodes and whatever else in the soil aren't equipped to keep it in check, and it takes over as a pernicious weed and harbors harmful insects -- which is a shame, since apparently in medieval times it was used to cure gout and sciatica!

Now that we're here in the UK, I'm going to see if I can find some - I like the idea of wild herbs and picking them - we really enjoy our mustard and dandelion greens picked fresh and wild in California. And the muffins look tasty! Thanks for sharing this.

i just stumbled upon your blog and i really like what i see. such lovely recipes and so much to read! :) will be coming back for more. love the way these muffins look. was thinking of creeping out into the kitchen to make something. think i'd just rather stay here and ogle.

Seems ground elder was all the rave when I was recently in Athens. I wasn't adventurous enough then, having sampled many new and lovely dishes, but will tuck this new recipe into the files for next year. What does it taste like?

Tanna – your best bet to find ground-elder is probably in your back yard :)

TadMack – you’re right. That’s the ground-elder I’m talking about. Another name for it is bishop’s weed or goutweed – exactly for its medicinal properties!

Maybelles Mom – no, these two are not related!! But it’s tastes green and fresh and slightly carrot-like (just remember to use only the tiniest of leaves, not big weeds!)

Sheltie Girl – hope you’ll find some!

Ilva – of course I will :)

Paz – ground-elder is not well known in the culinary world, but it sure makes tasty soups and pies and muffins!

James – I’m counting on that!!!

Jeanne – nope, these are sweet muffins. And ground-elder was consumed for food in England in the past – you just need to rediscover it :)

Sophie – they were tasty indeed. And the plate is a gift from an Estonian foodblogger Kajakas – she’s a talented artist!

Diva – welcome to Nami-nami and hope to see you again soon!

Ejm – I’ve learnt about lots of different plants thanks to Kalyn’s WHB – it’s great to offer something in return! Re: your neighbour – I bet she’d be thankful if you help her to get rid of the ground-elder (young leaves only, remember!)

Y – the muffins taste green, refreshing, vanilla-y!

Laura – thank you!

Kalyn – I was intrigued to. When I was told there’s a ground-elder muffin recipe in the mag, I assumed it was a savoury one..

ScienceMel – Greeks are very fond of bitter wild leaves. They sure know what's good for us!

I am so glad that I decided to check online for some inspiration instead of going for the same old ground elder soup recipes. I would never have thought of doing muffins... but as I have all the ingredients (and a new group of people to surprise with this great plant/weed) I'm gonna do this with the leaves I picked 10 mins ago. Thanks so much.